September 5-6, 2025
Submitted by JV Volleyball Coach
Shoutouts:
All-tournament team:
Raegan Lawrence
Valdez High School and the Gilson Middle School opened their doors to host a total of 18 volleyball teams (including the Lady Buccaneers) for the annual Valdez Invite Volleyball Tournament. Making the journey to Valdez for the tournament were the Barrow Whalers, Bethel Warriors, Delta Huskies, Eagle River Wolves, Houston Hawks, Monroe Catholic Rams, North Pole Patriots, and the Redington Huskies. The Junior Varsity teams took over the GMS gym while the Varsity teams competed in the high school. It was energizing having so many hometown and visiting fans fill the stands to support their teams for this tournament.
On Friday all teams played one set against each other to determine the gold and silver division and the pool play rotations for the following morning. The JV Buc’s first goal of the tournament was to earn a place in the Gold division with the top five ranking teams. On the Buccaneer starting lineup were Raegan Lawrence, Peyton Branshaw, Laken Unger, River Smelcer, Averey Franklin, and Laela Scott. Coming off the bench were Ava Mitchell, Cersei Strickland, Amelia Alex, Olivia Kilian, Olivia Marchant, and Savannah Hamerly.
The first set against the North Pole Patriots was an evenly matched battle with each team exchanging attacks across the net. The first set of the day was against the North Pole Patriots, a team we faced multiple times last season in close battles. The Bucs played an aggressive set, throwing up both front and back row attacks against the Patriots and even earned a couple block kills by Unger and Smelcer against North Pole’s offense. The Bucs ended up winning 25-23. The second set of the morning was against the Monroe Rams. The Bucs came out strong and held
the lead for the entire set. Branshaw earned multiple kills by putting up a fierce attack from outside. Both Smelcer and Lawrence threw down a series of bullet serves that the Rams could not touch. The Bucs earned their second win of the morning, 25-19. The next two sets of the morning against the Bethel Warriors and the Eagle River Wolves were close games. The girls worked hard but came up short in these sets, 22-25 and 23-25. The Lady Buchs reeled in the next three sets against the Redington Huskies, Delta Huskies, and Barrow Whalers. Strickland picked up her first kill of the season against Redington followed by another couple against the Delta Huskies while Marchant earned her first kill of the season against the Delta Huskies. The last set of the night against the Houston Hawks was a 19-25 loss, but overall the JV Buccaneers team had earned 5 wins and 3 losses placing them in the Gold Bracket for the following day. The Bucs had achieved their first goal of the tournament!
Saturday morning found us facing the number one seed, the North Pole Patriots once again. The girls played an aggressive game with many attacks from Unger and Branshaw along with terrific serving by Lawrence and Scott, but the Patriots game out with a narrow victory (23-25). The Bucs weren’t rattled. They rallied back in the next set against the Monroe Rams. Franklin and Scott picked up a number of defensive digs while Lawrence mixed up our team attacks. The Rams fell short in the end as the Bucs took the win 25-21. In the next two sets against the
Wolves and Whalers the Bucs continued to dish out aggressive attacks from both front and back row, however Eagle River and Barrow showed more consistency across the board and took these sets. The Bucs ended the day with a 1 and 3 record. The Barrow Whalers ended up taking first place for the Gold Division in the championship game.
Raegan Lawrence was recognized on the all-tournament team for her performance this weekend. This season Lawrence is acting as setter on the court which is the play-maker for volleyball. She showed tremendous hustle and hard work throughout the tournament. Well done Raegan!
